Kansas, Missouri battle over companies

KC topics that don't fit anywhere else.
Post Reply
User avatar
KCMax
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 24051
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2004 3:31 pm
Location: The basement of a Ross Dress for Less
Contact:

Kansas, Missouri battle over companies

Post by KCMax »

Berger Devine Yaeger architects has left Uptown Theater for Overland Park
Berger Devine Yaeger architects has left the historic Uptown Theater in midtown for Overland Park.

"We had simply outgrown our space," Carl Yaeger, the firm?s president, said in a statement.

The 50-employee firm now occupies 20,000 square feet in a building formerly used by the Internal Revenue Service at 7780 W. 119th St., near the Rosana Square Shopping Center. The building had been vacant since 2007.

Its previous digs were upstairs at the Uptown, at Broadway and Valentine Road.
Last edited by KCMax on Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
SAVE THE PLAZA - FROM ZOMBIES! Find out how at:

http://twitter.com/TheKCRag
User avatar
Midtownkid
Broadway Square
Broadway Square
Posts: 2991
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2002 4:27 pm
Location: Roanoke, KCMO

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by Midtownkid »

Their style will change from inspired, urban design to bland badge boxes... :lol:
User avatar
beautyfromashes
One Park Place
One Park Place
Posts: 7188
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:04 am

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by beautyfromashes »

Uptown TIF- the worst one in the city, if not the country.
User avatar
Midtownkid
Broadway Square
Broadway Square
Posts: 2991
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2002 4:27 pm
Location: Roanoke, KCMO

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by Midtownkid »

Yuck, I just looked at their website.  They were already into badge boxes.

They designed Village West and some Casinos.  Sucks to loose any company to JOCO...but it's not like El Dorado is leaving

http://bergerdevineyaeger.com/index.html
User avatar
GRID
City Hall
City Hall
Posts: 17083
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2003 12:20 pm
Contact:

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by GRID »

Well, OP landed a longtime midtown architecture firm and their 50 employess.
Berger Devine had been in Missouri for 36 years, but Kansas development officials made it ?very attractive? for the firm to relocate,
http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/1405972.html

But just to keep things even and justify this move to all you Kansas supporters.   KCMO got the other half of a QuikTrip on SW Blvd....

http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/1405654.html


If this doesn't sum up the last 40 years of development in KC.  I don't know what does. ;)
Last edited by GRID on Wed Aug 26, 2009 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Midtownkid
Broadway Square
Broadway Square
Posts: 2991
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2002 4:27 pm
Location: Roanoke, KCMO

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by Midtownkid »

Architecture firm being discussed here:  http://forum.kcrag.com/index.php?topic=16074.0
LenexatoKCMO
City Center Square
City Center Square
Posts: 14667
Joined: Wed May 25, 2005 3:34 pm
Location: Valentine

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by LenexatoKCMO »

The QT move is not insignificant since it is largely motivated by wanting to pay KCMO taxes rather than WyCo.  I wager the city of KCMO sees more economic benefit from the QT moving a few feet to the left than OP sees from the 50 architects - half of whom probably already live there.  
User avatar
GRID
City Hall
City Hall
Posts: 17083
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2003 12:20 pm
Contact:

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by GRID »

Neither move is really significant on a grand scale of things, but my point was how ironic the two stories are and how it really does fit the overall pattern of business migration in metro KC.

KCMO gets sales taxes from a convenience store and KS gets 50 high paid employees and the status symbol of having another white collar business located there.  Plus incentives were used to move from KS to MO.

Sounds like a pretty fair deal to me.

The moral of the story is that if you multiply this out by the 1000's, it does make a major impact and pretty much desribes the economic MO-KS migration over the past several decades.
User avatar
dangerboy
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 9029
Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2003 8:28 am
Location: West 39th St. - KCMO

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by dangerboy »

Y'all think the sales taxes on cigarettes outweighs earnings taxes on 50 highly paid professionals?

Remember, the day after local leaders unveiled the One KC campaign we learned that Quintiles was getting tax breaks to move hundreds of jobs from KCMO to Overland Park.  Funny how when a suburbs sticks up for itself it's considered good-natured competition, but when KCMO sticks up for itself it's considered divisive and in poor taste.
User avatar
KCMax
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 24051
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2004 3:31 pm
Location: The basement of a Ross Dress for Less
Contact:

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by KCMax »

As long as businesses and cities have incentives to do this, it will continue.
SAVE THE PLAZA - FROM ZOMBIES! Find out how at:

http://twitter.com/TheKCRag
LenexatoKCMO
City Center Square
City Center Square
Posts: 14667
Joined: Wed May 25, 2005 3:34 pm
Location: Valentine

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by LenexatoKCMO »

dangerboy wrote: Y'all think the sales taxes on cigarettes outweighs earnings taxes on 50 highly paid professionals?
I suspect the sales of tobacco, booze, and gasoline alone at that location probably yield a very eye-popping tax base.  Volume probably stands to improve that much more when the missouri gas prices start popping up on the sign.
User avatar
staubio
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 6958
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2003 11:17 am
Location: River Market
Contact:

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by staubio »

I really struggle with companies like this moving to the suburbs. Don't they have problems recruiting bright creative class candidates? Do people really not care about driving to the 'burbs?
User avatar
chrizow
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 17157
Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2003 8:43 am

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by chrizow »

staubio wrote: I really struggle with companies like this moving to the suburbs. Don't they have problems recruiting bright creative class candidates?
not necessarily.  plenty of architects and other members of the "creative class" live in JoCo or places like it. 
staubio wrote: Do people really not care about driving to the 'burbs?
perhaps not - especially if they already live there. 
LenexatoKCMO
City Center Square
City Center Square
Posts: 14667
Joined: Wed May 25, 2005 3:34 pm
Location: Valentine

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by LenexatoKCMO »

chrizow wrote: not necessarily.  plenty of architects and other members of the "creative class" live in JoCo or places like it. 

perhaps not - especially if they already live there. 
Exactly - given the relativly tiny core population in KC, simple statistics would have to lead towards a probability that the vast majority of the creative class in KC does indeed reside in the burbs. 
User avatar
dangerboy
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 9029
Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2003 8:28 am
Location: West 39th St. - KCMO

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by dangerboy »

staubio wrote: I really struggle with companies like this moving to the suburbs. Don't they have problems recruiting bright creative class candidates? Do people really not care about driving to the 'burbs?
Right now people live in the urban core is such a minority of employees at most suburban companies, that I don't think it makes a big difference.  For every employee who complains about College Blvd. being too far from Downtown, the probably have three employees complaining that it's too far from Gardner or Harrisonville.
User avatar
chrizow
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 17157
Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2003 8:43 am

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by chrizow »

sometimes in this echo chamber it's easy to forget that a 15-minute auto commute is completely A-OK with 99% of kansas citians, including most members of the "creative class."  not everyone regards a suburban workplace as a soul-crushing, dehumanizing proposition.   :lol:
loftguy
Bryant Building
Bryant Building
Posts: 3850
Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2005 12:12 pm

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by loftguy »

staubio wrote: I really struggle with companies like this moving to the suburbs. Don't they have problems recruiting bright creative class candidates? Do people really not care about driving to the 'burbs?
Many creative firms such as architects and advertising,etc... have made the decision to locate in the downtown area/urban core, so as to provide ready access to the candidate pool from all areas of the metro, in a somewhat equal manner.  Many of them have sought out cool facilities such as lofts, or ultra moderns, to make themselves attractive to those same potential employees.

There are other firms that are run by selfish dicks that just want to move their offices closer to their home in the burbs and shorten their own commute.
heatherkay
Alameda Tower
Alameda Tower
Posts: 1424
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:39 am
Location: River Market and Rosedale

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by heatherkay »

We can go around and around this discussion, but it fundamentally comes down to what do you do when you have kids?  At some point in the large majority of people's lives -- even architect's lives -- they reach a point where they have to ask themselves "where is little Ruby going to go to school?"  We've had lots of discussion here about the quality and relative merits of KCMO's charter schools and lower-cost private schools.  And I personally am frustrated by the vicious circle of "only people who don't care about their kids' education send their kids to KCMO schools" therefore "only people who don't care about their kids' education send their kids to KCMO schools." 

But the fact remains that even lower-cost private schools are a bite and many people are not willing to take a risk on their children's education and therefore future, by stepping out and being educational reformers.  They want a school that they know will be good that will not be an arm-and-a-leg.  It is not inconceivable that an architect or a graphic designer or some other creative type might run the numbers and figure out that for the price of biting the bullet, adding 30-45 minutes a day in their car, and moving to the suburbs, they can maybe afford to send their kids to college. 

It's a terrible set-up and I wish people didn't have to (or feel like they had to) make the choice between living in the urban core and living in the suburbs.  Until they get the school district mess fixed, though, it will be part of the circle of life.  Just be glad that Roeland Park, Mission, and Fairway are still an option.
aknowledgeableperson
City Center Square
City Center Square
Posts: 12624
Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2004 10:31 pm

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by aknowledgeableperson »

loftguy wrote: There are other firms that are run by selfish dicks that just want to move their offices closer to their home in the burbs and shorten their own commute.
You should take your blinders, and your blindfold, off.  You make an assumption that "all" creative types want an urban lifestyle.  But evidently there are creative types that are not solely urban-minded with regards to a lifestyle or even regards to workplace.  This country, region and city are made up of all different types in all the generations.
I may be right.  I may be wrong.  But there is a lot of gray area in-between.
aknowledgeableperson
City Center Square
City Center Square
Posts: 12624
Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2004 10:31 pm

Re: OP snatches another longtime KCMO company with incentives, but KCMO gets a QT!

Post by aknowledgeableperson »

GRID wrote: Neither move is really significant on a grand scale of things, but my point was how ironic the two stories are and how it really does fit the overall pattern of business migration in metro KC.

KCMO gets sales taxes from a convenience store and KS gets 50 high paid employees and the status symbol of having another white collar business located there.  Plus incentives were used to move from KS to MO.

Sounds like a pretty fair deal to me.

The moral of the story is that if you multiply this out by the 1000's, it does make a major impact and pretty much desribes the economic MO-KS migration over the past several decades.
When you move to the DC area please keep us informed of the businesses shifting in the area and the economic incentives involved.

As they say, "All is fair in love and war".  And I would add "economic development".  Yes, incentives are tossed around like rolls at Lambert's but I would rather have the rolls instead of the incentives.
I may be right.  I may be wrong.  But there is a lot of gray area in-between.
Post Reply